Just Discovered: Rare “Inverted Effigy” £2 Coin
It’s time to really start examining your change again.
Change Checker has just been able to confirm that a small number of “Inverted Effigy” £2 Coins have entered circulation.
The Inverted Effigy Coin has the Queen’s head rotated clockwise by approximately 150 degrees
First discovered by a Change Checker, and now confirmed as genuine by The Royal Mint, this unusual strike appears on a handful of the 2015 Britannia £2 Coins.
The Royal Mint has accounted for the seemingly impossible misalignment of the Queen’s effigy as “almost certainly the result of one of the dies working loose and rotating during the striking process”.
The result is that the Queen’s head is offset by around 150 degrees compared to the Britannia design on the reverse of the coin.
Just how rare is the Inverted Effigy £2 Britannia?
The Royal Mint is unable to give any indication of how many Inverted Effigy coins have entered circulation but we can make some initial estimates.
The first-year 2015 £2 Britannia is already one of the most-scarce circulating £2 coins ever issued with just 650,000 coins passing through banks and cash centres. That already places it third equal in the all-time low mintage charts.
We have analysed 5,000 circulation coins and our results suggest that the Inverted Effigy may have affected as few as 1 in 200 of the coins struck – in other words around just 3,250 coins.
Of course, if the Inverted Effigy is a consequence of the die slipping during the striking process, it is possible that there may be other variations where the Queen’s head is less or more misaligned as the die has worked its way out of position.
Errors, mis-strikes and myths
Of course, given the many million coins The Royal Mint strike each year, it is to their immense credit that mis-strikes and errors are so few and far between. But, of course, when they do arise, they cause great collector excitement, as some of these other examples pay testament to.
- The Undated 20p – read more
- The “Silver” 2p – read more
- The 2014 Year of the Horse Silver £2 – read more
But there are a few myths out there too – upside down edge lettering, the “Pemember” Gunpowder Plot £2 coin and the “Necklace” £2 coin, which all have perfectly normal explanations.
Buyers beware
But finally a note of caution. I’m sure in time we’ll see some “examples” of the Inverted Effigy £2 for sale online. Before you think of buying one, please beware. Are you seeing a genuine Inverted Effigy or just a coin that someone has rotated in a photograph to make it look inverted?
Just wondering if anyone can give me some information on this coin please. I have 2 if you have the queens head up the writing on the side is the same way . But on the other one when queens head is up the writing on the side is upside down . Many thanks
Hi Matt
I am sure you would know by now, BUT in case you don’t
Every £1 £2 & £5 with an edge inscription has a right way up and an up side down
I hope this helps
Les.
Already got four of these coins had another but gave it away to family and hers was the inverted, didn’t realise at time. Annoys me that workers take the coins to sell online cause they’ll manage to sell one or two whilst the news papers all report their worth thousands then slowly they’ll realise they’re basically worth face value, but when they do they’ll spend them and by the time people who actually collect them will get them in highly worn condition
New coins dont get to the general public for a couple of reasons. People who work in banks and post office’s are in my opinion giving sealed bags to family or themselves (paid for of course) they then end up on ebay with the coins begin sold at stupid prices. Also people who work in shops and supermarket checkouts rifle through change taking them out also. So these 2 methods greatly reduce general public getting new coins in their change.
Already got four of these coins had another but gave it away to family and hers was the inverted, didn’t realise at time. Annoys me that workers take the coins to sell online cause they’ll manage to sell one or two whilst the news papers all report their worth thousands then slowly they’ll realise they’re basically worth face value, but when they do they’ll spend them and by the time people who actually collect them will get them in highly worn condition
New coins dont get to the general public for a couple of reasons. People who work in banks and post office’s are in my opinion giving sealed bags to family or themselves (paid for of course) they then end up on ebay with the coins begin sold at stupid prices. Also people who work in shops and supermarket checkouts rifle through change taking them out also. So these 2 methods greatly reduce general public getting new coins in their change.
Finding it hard to find any 2015 £2 coins in my town of Barrow-in-furness.
I would like to find a normal Britania £2 coin in my change let alone an inverted coin ,
but I did manage to get a couple of bags of the first world war £2 coins.
Les.
Hi,
I have one of these coins, how would I go about selling one?
Thanks,
Chris
I have one of these £2 pound coins with the queens head the wrong way up how much is it worth do you think I should hang onto it.
Utter rubbish !! YOU didn’t find this at all !!
It was Christopher Henry Perkins who found this last year – F A C T !!!!!!
Hi Anne, this coin was bought to our attention a few months ago by a Change Checker who tweeted us. We’ve been investigating it since and have only just managed to get confirmation from The Royal Mint. Thanks, Yasmin
Hi Yasmin, Maybe you mean and one of Chris’s fellow coin collecting friends who had taken a screen shot of Chris’s post stating about the error/mistrike, and posted it under a post of your’s somewhere. But it WAS actually Chris who found it FIRST !!
Chris happens to be an excellent numismatic who writes/sells books about coins, their values and any errors/mistrikes there are. He is a top man and an expert in his field !!
Thanks – Anne
I have a £2 coin with St.Pauls cathedral on the back but no date on either side. It says two pounds at the top but underneath is blank on both sides. I’ve compared it with another the same and a lot of the writing is missing. Is this rare?
i have recently got a new 5 pound note serial no.AM52 659373 it looks like where the big ben tower oppersite the queens picture next to i t looks like it been halved as it is not flat like all the other notes can please tell me if it is a rare one thank you i will send you a picture
Having a complete set of £2 coins, this Inverted Effigy £2 Britannia coin would sit perfectly in my collection.
What do you do if you find one put it on here with a comment
Now off to route through my coins to find an elusive Inverted Effigy £2 coin – fingers crossed…..
Good luck 🙂 Let us know if you find one!
I have several Irish punt coins and a five punt note. U have read that they could be worth a lot of money. Is there anyway I can find out if I have the correct coins to be worth such amount and if so how I could sell them.
If i was to buy one of these from an auction site i would only buy one that had a photo of someone holding it up infront of a mirror so i could see both sides at the same time.
Just checked mine and out of 6 i dont have any. I never find any mule coins (one day i will find that rare mule).
Yasmin, do you know why the royal mint have not released the mintage figures for the all 2015 £2 coins (4th effigy) and the no denomination 50p b.o.b (4th effigy) or are the mintage figures combined with the 5th portrait. seems a bit strainge to me.
Hi Trish, the only circulation £2 coin with the 4th portrait was the Technology £2 (mintage: 35,360,058). The £2’s and the BOB 50p (with no denomination) with the 4th portrait, were all brilliant uncirculated quality. These figures have not been released by the Royal Mint yet and either have the 2014 figures. Unfortunately i don’t have an explanation why. Hope this helps. Thanks, Yasmin
Hi yasmine, yes strainge they havent released the mintages for the 2015 in the presentation packets (4th portrait). they are keeping hush hush. I cant wait for the mintage figures to be released. I think the beatrix potter ones are going to be really low mintage too, (i hope ☺). Not many jemimas about at all, ive not found any. But i love the certified, so ive bought a few from change checker. There great, thank you.